Council polls: Wednesday deadline for nomination withdrawal

The state election commission has set Wednesday as the last date of withdrawal of nominations for the February 24 elections in two autonomous councils in Meghalaya, officials said here today.
The finalisation and publication of valid nominations and the allocation of symbols to eligible candidates would be held on Thursday (February 13), they said.
It was learnt that over 220 candidates have filed their nominations for the ensuing polls and their scrutiny was conducted yesterday.
123 candidates including 10 women filed their nominations for the 29 seats in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council while 100 candidates and a lone woman filed their nomination papers for the 29 seats in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council, they said.

A total of 1,148 polling stations have been set up for the elections to the KHADC and 344 polling stations for the JHADC.
Over six lakh voters (6,68,398) would be Exercising their franchise for the KHADC while over two lakh (2,09,217) voters were expected to cast their votes in the JHADC.
Among the prominent faces contesting the Council polls were Assembly deputy speaker Sanbor Shullai (NCP), state district council affairs minister HDR Lyngdoh (Congress), KHADC chief executive member who is also an MLA, Pynshngainlang Syiem (Congress) and his deputy Remington Pyngrope (also an MLA) contesting on UDP tickets.
The state has three district councils - the KHADC, JHADC and the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) - each having 29 members and they were created according to the provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.